Renshaw set for fulfillment of a lifelong dream...

The 20-year-old is a British record holder and is ranked second in the world for 200m breaststroke but was taking nothing for granted when it came to being picked for the Great Britain team for the Games this summer.

LOUGHBOROUGH College swimmer Molly Renshaw is thrilled with her selection for the Rio Olympics – but she has revealed just how hard the days leading up to the announcement were for her.

The 20-year-old is a British record holder and is ranked second in the world for 200m breaststroke but was taking nothing for granted when it came to being picked for the Great Britain team for the Games this summer.

Molly was only 14 when she won the 200m Breaststroke bronze at the British Championships, followed by silver in the same event at the ASA National Championships. She went on to win the 200m Breaststroke bronze at her first European Junior Championships and was placed 20th at her World Championships senior debut in Shanghai.

But then an unsuccessful appeal following the last Olympic trials meant Molly narrowly missed the chance to compete at London 2012.

“That was hard to go through. My coach wanted to appeal. I was so young. It really knocked my confidence. I actually didn’t know if I even wanted to get back in the pool. Then I came to Loughborough and I have had so much support.”

Molly went on to win 200m Breaststroke gold at the 2012 European Junior Championships, silver at the British Championships for the next two years and at her Commonwealth Games debut for England at Glasgow 2014, she won 200m Breaststroke bronze, before taking silver at her senior European Championship debut a month later.

Molly ended 2015 with three gold medals and one silver at the ASA’s winter meet in Sheffield, breaking two British records and rising to second in the world rankings.

The British Swimming Championships in Glasgow saw Molly knock three-tenths of a second off her previous British record with a time of 2:23.56 in the 200m Breaststroke final to claim silver.

“But the trials were not enjoyable. Anything can happen in these races. There are swimmers who have never competed in the Commonwealths or the Worlds but who do something unexpected and break through.”

Finally, after a week, the selectors gave Molly their answer. She was within two per cent of the consideration time set by the British Olympic Association. She would be on the plane to Brazil.

“The first emotion was overwhelming relief. I was relieved, my family was relieved. Now I am just so excited. I still can’t quite believe it.”

Molly is training for 30 hours every week in the pool and the gym alongside her BTEC Sport studies at Loughborough College. “It is good to have a change of pace with the academic side of things. I really enjoy it.

“The College is great at not making the work add to your pressures. They really understand the way elite sport works and that flexibility is needed around training and competitions.”

Next up is a training camp in Mallorca and then competition in Barcelona. “The whole team will be together for that, which will be great.

“We all fly out for our pre Olympic holding camp in Belo Horizonte on July 22. We have to adjust our training to 12pm-2pm in the afternoon and 10pm – midnight because that’s when the heats and finals will be, to fit in with the TV coverage.

“We go to the Olympic village in early August, before the Games begin on August 5. I will be there for the whole thing, right until the closing ceremony.

“The whole thing is so exciting. It is a dream come true. I have worked so hard for this. It’s the experience of a lifetime.”